Nw Test Design Mandates

Acceptance Test Design Mandates

Four mandates enforced during peer review. All must pass before handoff to software-crafter.

LANGUAGE CONVENTION FRAME (read FIRST — overrides all examples below)

Code examples in this skill use Python syntax for illustration only. They are NOT prescriptive about target language. nWave is language-agnostic per the "genericity and agnosticism" mandate (2026-05-24).

Before applying mandates, detect the target project's language from manifest files: package.json → TypeScript/JS; Cargo.toml → Rust; go.mod → Go; pyproject.toml/setup.py/Pipfile → Python; pom.xml/build.gradle → Java/Kotlin; *.csproj/*.fsproj → C#/F#; Gemfile → Ruby; Package.swift → Swift.

When the target language is NOT Python: adapt EVERY code example — replace Python imports (from pytest_bdd import ..., from hypothesis import ...), type hints, class/function syntax, test-framework idioms, directory conventions (tests/ vs test/ vs __tests__/) with target equivalents. Project conventions ALWAYS WIN over skill examples — if the user's repo has 50 TS files and zero Python files, mandates apply via TypeScript test framework, never Python pytest.

Empirical anchor: 5 of 5 Python code blocks in this skill, zero TS/Go/Rust — root-cause for language-leak per F-SKILL-EXAMPLES-LANGUAGE-LEAK. Connects [[feedback_language_adapter_plugin_architecture_2026_05_24]] (genericity mandate).

Mandate 1: Hexagonal Boundary Enforcement

Tests invoke through driving ports (entry points), never internal components.

Driving Ports (Test Through These)

Application services/orchestrators | API controllers/CLI handlers | Message consumers/event handlers | Public API facade classes

Not Entry Points (Never Test Directly)

Internal validators, parsers, formatters | Domain entities/value objects | Repository implementations | Internal service components

Correct Pattern

# Invoke through system entry point (driving port)
from myapp.orchestrator import AppOrchestrator

def when_user_performs_action(self):
    orchestrator = AppOrchestrator()
    self.result = orchestrator.perform_action(
        context=self.context
    )

Violation Pattern

# Invoking internal component directly
from myapp.validator import InputValidator  # INTERNAL

def when_user_validates_input(self):
    validator = InputValidator()  # WRONG BOUNDARY
    self.result = validator.validate(self.input)

Testing internal components creates Testing Theater: tests pass but users cannot access feature through actual entry point. Integration wiring bugs remain hidden.

Mandate 2: Business Language Abstraction

Step methods speak business language, abstract all technical details.

Three Abstraction Layers

Layer 1 - Gherkin: Pure business language, all stakeholders. Domain terms from ubiquitous language | Zero technical jargon | Describe WHAT user does, not HOW system does it

Scenario: Customer places order for available product
  Given customer has items in shopping cart
  When customer submits order
  Then order is confirmed
  And customer receives confirmation email

Layer 2 - Step Methods: Business service delegation. Method names use domain terms | Delegate to business service layer (OrderService, not HTTP client) | Assert business outcomes (order.is_confirmed()), not technical state (status_code == 201)

def when_customer_submits_order(self):
    self.result = self.order_service.place_order(
        customer=self.customer, items=self.cart_items
    )

def then_order_is_confirmed(self):
    assert self.result.is_confirmed()
    assert self.result.has_order_number()

Layer 3 - Business Services: Production services handle technical implementation. HTTP calls, DB transactions, SMTP hidden inside service layer.

Test Smell Indicators

requests.post() in step method | db.execute() in step method | assert response.status_code | Technical terms in Gherkin

Mandate 3: User Journey Completeness

Tests validate complete user journeys with business value, not isolated technical operations.

Complete Journey Structure

Every scenario includes: User trigger (Given/When) | Business logic (When - system processes rules) | Observable outcome (Then - user sees result) | Business value (Then - value delivered)

Correct Example

Scenario: Customer successfully completes purchase
  Given customer has selected products worth $150
  And customer has valid payment method
  When customer submits order
  Then order is confirmed with order number
  And customer receives email confirmation
  And order appears in customer's order history

Violation Example

Scenario: Order validator accepts valid order data
  Given valid order JSON exists
  When validator.validate() is called
  Then validation passes
# Tests isolated validation, not user journey

Scenario Name Test

Does name express user value or technical operation? "Customer completes purchase" = correct. "Validator accepts JSON" = violation.

Walking Skeleton Strategy

Balance user-centric E2E integration tests with focused boundary tests.

Walking Skeletons (2-5 per feature)

Trace thin vertical slice delivering observable user value E2E | Each answers: "Can a user accomplish this goal and see the result?" | Express simplest complete user journey | Validate system delivers demo-able stakeholder value | Touch all layers as consequence of journey, not as design goal

Walking Skeleton Litmus Test

1. Title describes user goal ("Customer purchases a product") not technical flow ("Order passes through all layers")
2. Given/When describe user actions/context, not system state setup
3. Then describe user observations (confirmation, email, receipt), not internal side effects (DB row, message queued)
4. Non-technical stakeholder can confirm "yes, that is what users need"

Focused Scenarios (15-20 per feature, majority)

Test specific business rules at driving port boundary | Test doubles for external dependencies (faster, isolated) | Cover business rule variations and edge cases | Invoke through entry point (OrderService, Orchestrator)

Recommended Ratio

For typical feature with 20 scenarios: 2-3 walking skeletons (user value E2E) | 17-18 focused scenarios (boundary tests with test doubles). Walking skeletons prove users achieve goals. Focused scenarios run fast, cover breadth. Both use business language and invoke through entry points.

Mandate 4: Pure Function Extraction Before Fixtures

BEFORE parametrizing any test fixture with environment variants:

1. Identify ALL business logic in the code under test
2. Extract every piece of business logic into a pure function:
   • Pure function: takes inputs, returns outputs, no side effects
   • Impure code: subprocess calls, file I/O, network, environment variables
3. Test pure functions directly — no fixtures, no mocks, no environment setup needed
4. Test impure code (subprocess, file I/O) through adapter interfaces:
   • Define a port (interface) for each impure operation
   • Create a test adapter (in-memory, fake) for each port
   • Acceptance tests use real adapters; unit tests use fakes
5. Parametrize fixtures ONLY for the thin adapter layer that connects to real environments

Rationale: Parametrizing fixtures across environments is expensive. Pure functions need zero environment setup. Extract first, parametrize the minimum.

Violation Pattern

# WRONG: parametrizing entire test across environments
@pytest.fixture(params=["clean", "with-pre-commit", "with-stale-config"])
def environment(request):
    return setup_environment(request.param)

def test_install_detects_conflicts(environment):
    result = full_install_pipeline(environment)  # Impure: touches filesystem
    assert result.conflicts == []

Correct Pattern

# Step 1: Extract pure logic
def detect_conflicts(config: Config, existing: list[str]) -> list[Conflict]:
    """Pure function — no I/O, no environment dependency."""
    return [Conflict(k) for k in existing if k in config.keys]

# Step 2: Test pure function directly (no fixture needed)
def test_detect_conflicts_with_overlapping_keys():
    conflicts = detect_conflicts(Config(keys=["a", "b"]), existing=["b", "c"])
    assert conflicts == [Conflict("b")]

# Step 3: Parametrize ONLY the adapter layer
@pytest.fixture(params=["clean", "with-pre-commit"])
def fs_adapter(request):
    return create_real_fs_adapter(request.param)

def test_adapter_reads_config_from_environment(fs_adapter):
    config = fs_adapter.read_config()  # Only I/O is parametrized
    assert config is not None

Mandate Compliance (CM-D)

• CM-D: Business logic extracted to pure functions. Impure code isolated behind adapters. Fixture parametrization applies only to adapter layer.

The 3 Pillars (style backbone for acceptance tests)

These three pillars are the lens used during writing and review. They sit above Mandates 1-4: every scenario MUST embody all three before mandate compliance is even considered.

Pillar 1 — Domain language with specific actions

Scenarios speak the domain, not the code. A domain expert reads them without seeing a single line of implementation. Step names are semantic (User_signs_up, NOT Call_signup_endpoint). Technical jargon (HTTP, JSON, schema, endpoint, database) is forbidden in scenario titles, Gherkin steps, and step-method names. Technical detail lives inside step bodies only.

Pillar 2 — Chained narrative

Within a story line, scenarios read as a sequence of state transitions: the Given of scenario N equals the Given + When of scenario N-1. Read in order, the tests tell the feature. The Given of scenario N never duplicates the setup of N-1: it reuses already-defined step methods (step composition, not copy-pasted fixtures).

Pillar 3 — App as in production

The SUT is built via the production composition root (style WebApplicationFactory or equivalent). Only external / non-deterministic ports (clock, email, SMS, push, payment, LLM, third-party APIs) are substituted by fakes/stubs. The app is never rebuilt by hand replicating the wiring. Tier B (state-machine PBT, Mandate 10) uses an InMemoryComposition root that honors the same interfaces — same vocabulary, different composition root.

Mandate 8 — Universe-bound assertion at layers 1-3

Every test at layers 1-3 (unit, in-memory acceptance, subprocess/FS acceptance) that mutates observable state MUST assert via assert_state_delta(before, after, universe={...}, expected={...}) (Python reference: nwave_ai/state_delta/__init__.py; other-language equivalents are added as the matrix grows).

• universe declares the SET of port-exposed observable names the test promises to track. Names are always port-exposed (event types, public read-model fields, exit codes, captured outputs) — never internal struct fields.
• expected declares which universe entries change and how (predicate per entry: set_to, unchanged, appended_with, prepended_with, containing, ...).
• Anything in universe that changes UNEXPECTEDLY (mutates with no expected entry) → violation. Fail-closed.
• Layers 4+ (integration, walking-skeleton, E2E) MAY use traditional assertions — at that layer the test cost is dominated by subprocess / network / real I/O and the universe-guard payoff is smaller.

Bad universe entries couple the test to private mutation details (BoardProjection._rows_cells_dict) — a refactor rename reds the test for no functional reason. Good universe entries are port names (events.PhaseEntered.emitted_count, board.rows[task_id].cells[wave].status).

Mandate 9 — PBT input mode is layer-dependent

Property-based test machinery (Hypothesis @given, RuleBasedStateMachine, equivalent in other languages) is constrained by layer:

• Layers 1-2 (unit, in-memory acceptance with in-memory doubles): PBT full. Hypothesis explores the generative input space (100+ examples per property by default). Pinned @example(...) preserves a domain-readable canonical case for reviewers.
• Layers 3-6 (subprocess/FS acceptance, integration, walking-skeleton, E2E): example-only. Sad paths are enumerated explicitly, never PBT-generated. PBT runtime cost is incompatible with real-I/O tests where each example is 100ms–seconds.

Rationale: layer 3+ tests serve wiring proof and contract verification; coverage exploration happens at layers 1-2 where iteration is cheap.

Mandate 10 — Two-tier acceptance for rich journeys

Acceptance tests come in two tiers. Tier A is mandatory. Tier B is optional and applied only to rich journeys.

• Tier A — Gojko-style: production composition root, real DI, example-only, 1-2 scenarios per journey. Lives in .feature files (Gherkin) + steps_*.py (or host-language equivalent) invoking the production composition root. Purpose: prove wiring end-to-end, demonstrate the feature works for the canonical example.
• Tier B — state-machine PBT (optional): in-memory doubles composition root, generative inputs, RuleBasedStateMachine with @rule / @precondition / @invariant. Lives in test_<feature>_state_machine.py (or host-language equivalent), separate file from the .feature. Purpose: explore the journey state space and surface contract gaps that example tests miss.

Vocabulary shared: the same step-methods (Given_/When_/Then_ named in the domain language) are invoked from both tiers. Step-methods are the contract; the two tiers are two composition roots over the same vocabulary.

Composition root contract:

• Tier A uses real DI (e.g. WebApplicationFactory in C#, real installer entry-point in Python, real router in Go).
• Tier B uses an InMemoryComposition class that wires the same interfaces with in-memory doubles. The InMemoryComposition exposes a capture_universe() method returning the universe snapshot used by assert_state_delta.

When to add Tier B:

• Journey has ≥3 chained scenarios (Pillar 2 active), AND
• Input space is domain-rich (emails, dates, payloads, free-text, IDs from a large set).

When Tier B is NOT worth it:

• Config-shaped features (single-shot installer config, schema validation, one-off CLI).
• Journeys with 1-2 scenarios (Tier A example covers the space).
• Features where the only observable is "did it crash" (no state mutation to model).

Mandate 11 — Integration sad paths stay example-based

Sad-path coverage at layers 3+ (subprocess / real adapter / integration / WS / E2E) uses traditional example-based tests, one example per failure mode.

• No PBT explosion on slow tests. The wall-clock cost of generating sad inputs against a real adapter dwarfs the gain.
• assert_state_delta is OPTIONAL at layer 3+ (universe-guard is a Mandate 8 layer 1-3 requirement; layers 4+ may use traditional assertions per Mandate 8).
• Each sad path is named explicitly: Bug_<symptom> or Sad_<scenario> test, with explicit input that triggers the failure.
• Coverage requirement: every failure mode enumerated in DEVOPS environment matrix and every failure_modes entry from docs/product/journeys/<name>.yaml gets at least one named sad-path test.

Layered Test Discipline

The four mandates above (Universe, PBT mode, two-tier acceptance, sad-path treatment) compose into this layered discipline. The table below is the single source of truth for "what does this layer look like."

Polyglot note: the Universe / state-delta contract is language-agnostic — the prose is the contract, the Python imports (nwave_ai.state_delta) are illustrative. Other host languages add their own matrix row + template lazily (Python is the current pilot).

Polyglot Adapter Matrix

Contract layer (3 Pillars + Mandates 8-11) is language-agnostic. Implementation bindings per language are documented in the matrix below. Python ships ready; other languages are bootstrap-on-demand templates (Epic 3+).

State-delta port per language lives at the project-local path tests/common/state_delta.<ext> (apply-if-absent on first DISTILL in the project). Python port is canonical at nwave_ai/state_delta/. Other-language ports are templated bootstraps from the per-lang Tier-2 expansion catalogs.

Universe assertion contract is identical across languages: every state-mutating test at layers 1-3 calls assert_state_delta(before, after, universe, expected) (Python signature; idiomatic translations preserve the same four parameters). Universe declares observable port-exposed names; expected maps each declared key to a predicate. Anything in universe not in expected MUST remain unchanged — fail-closed.

Per-lang predicate library mirrors the Python set: set_to, unchanged, appended_with, containing, normalized_to, idempotent_after, legacy_healed, prepended_with. Each language port implements all eight with the same semantic contract.

Mandate Compliance Verification

Handoff to software-crafter includes proof all mandates pass:

• CM-A (Mandate 1): All test files import entry points (driving ports), zero internal component imports
• CM-B (Mandate 2): Gherkin uses business terms only, step methods delegate to services
• CM-C (Mandate 3): Scenarios validate complete user journeys with business value
• CM-D (Mandate 4): Business logic extracted to pure functions. Impure code isolated behind adapters. Fixture parametrization applies only to adapter layer.
• CM-E (Mandate 8): Every step-method at layers 1-3 uses assert_state_delta(before, after, universe, expected) with port-exposed universe entries
• CM-F (Mandate 9): PBT decorators (@given, RuleBasedStateMachine) appear only on layer 1-2 tests; layer 3+ tests are example-only
• CM-G (Mandate 10): If journey is ≥3 chained scenarios with rich input space → Tier B test_<feature>_state_machine.py exists alongside Tier A .feature
• CM-H (Mandate 11): Layer 3+ sad paths are named example-based tests; no PBT machinery imported

Evidence: import listings, grep for technical terms, walking skeleton identification, focused scenario count, pure function extraction inventory, universe-entry audit (grep for _ prefix in universe names → flag internal-field leakage), tier-B file presence check.

Source: nWave-ai/nWave → nWave/skills/nw-test-design-mandates/SKILL.md

Also appears in: nWave-ai/nWave/plugins/nw/skills/nw-test-design-mandates/SKILL.md